In Reyeroord a lot of experiments have been conducted to work on the open space of tomorrow. The municipality of Rotterdam uses Reyeroord as a laboratory to explore how concrete projects can help the city to transform from different perspectives. How can Rotterdam be a social-sustainable, circular, climate adaptive and technologically innovative city? These ambitions seem high, but Reyeroord illustrates how trial and error with many projects at the same time can accelerate transitions.

Since 2018 a lot of local experiments have been set up in Reyeroord, in different scales, concerning different spatial transformations, with a different duration. The experiments aligned the needs of residents to the transformations that the neighbourhood is or will be facing. Architecture Workroom held various working sessions and individual interviews to get an overview of all the experiments, bundling them based on the transitional theme. Moreover, while working on the experiments, the neighbourhood used various instruments to activate and inform the neighbourhood, to allow them to implement the experiments themselves, which we have also gathered into an overview.

Reyeroord can be an important inspiration for the future of other neighbourhoods, inside and outside of Rotterdam. Based on the working sessions and interviews, we composed a toolkit with practical Building blocks, which can be used by every municipality that wants to set up local experiments. The toolkit consists of practical tips in a portable and convenient format, which makes it easy to work with for local actors.

From August 2022 until March 2023 AWB worked on the Building blocks of Reyeroord with Gemeente Rotterdam (core team Reyeroord+). The inventory of experiments and instruments, as well as the Building blocks, are both accessible online.